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Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), promoters of Taj group of hotels, has achieved 50 per cent objectives laid out under its 'Aspiration 2022' including a milestone of 200 hotels with an inventory of over 25,000 rooms.
The company had announced a five-year business strategy of restructuring, re-engineering and re-imagining its portfolio by 2022.
For the first nine months of FY20, IHCL said, its financial performance remained strong. The company’s focus was on topline growth, profitability and margin expansion. It posted a consistent margin expansion for eight consecutive quarters. The consolidated EBITDA margin was 24.4 per cent, it added.
Milestones achieved
According to the company, it reached a milestone of 200 hotels with an inventory of over 25,000 rooms in over 100 locations. Over 50 new hotels have been signed in the last two years. The hospitality firm has opened 12 hotels in 11 months in FY20, it said. Its budget hotel arm, Ginger, has 50 hotels in operation with 18 in the pipeline.
Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, IHCL, said: “This year continues the transformation of IHCL from a hotel company to a multi-brand hospitality ecosystem player. We have executed on our Aspiration 2022 vision and driven strong operational performance with significant improvement across all key financial metrics like profitability, cash-flows, EBITDA margins and debt ratios in the current fiscal.”
Reducing debt
IHCL sought to adopt an asset light model to reduce its debt. The company did this through management contracts; 43 per cent of its portfolio is now under management contracts, it said, against 32 per cent two years ago. The target would be to reach 50 per cent going forward.
Chhatwal added: “We will continue to focus on capturing emerging opportunities across the hospitality industry landscape, thereby creating significant value for all our stakeholders.”
As one of its ‘Aspiration 2022’ goals, the company wanted to build and rebuild certain brand images, said the firm. It launched SeleQtions as a brand and repositioned Ginger in the lean luxe segment with 20 per cent of its portfolio under it.
Its niche luxury segment brand amã Stays & Trails expanded its footprint, and now has a collection of 20 heritage properties in “unique and experiential locations” across India.
IHCL said it also strengthened its individual service brand, The Chambers. Taj’s exclusive business club was relaunched with enhanced features, and added over 100 new members, it added.
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